Clark Books

Great dog gave me a good idea of this loving dog. I browed the book from friend and glad i did.

Next to cave wall paintings, sculpture is the oldest known form of human artistic expression and has been a part of every culture in recorded human history. "Albert Paley: Portals & Gates" is an annotated compendium of 150 magnificently reproduced color plates of 150 examples of sculptures by Albert Paley, beginning with his first major commission (Portal Gates) for the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institutes in Washington D.C., to his most recent work (Transformation) displayed at the Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. The theme of these sculptures is that of diverse depictions and interpretations of portals, gates, and other key works over his thirty year career in which he has created more than sixty major works of art for public institutions and private corporations. Edited by M. Jessica Rowe (an established contemporary art expert and former curator of several national and international exhibitions), "Portals & Gates" is enhanced with informed and informative commentaries by Lynette L. Pohlman, Gregory L. Geoffroy, William L. Clark, and Mark C. Engelbrecht. Of special note is the inclusion of a Chronology and a Checklist that students of Palye's work will find invaluable. "Albert Paley: Portals & Gates" is a seminal study and a highly recommended addition to personal, academic, and community library 20th Century Art History & Sculpture reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

"The Alchemy of Love" by Elizabeth Engstrom and Alan M. Clark is a fascinating collection of stories accompanied by intriguing art work that together, you can never quite stop thinking about. They blend fantasy and reality is such a way that you are not sure when and where imagination takes over from rational thinking. In this book the written word intertwines with the visual picture so intimately you feel you know one by examining the other. It caused me to revisit and reexamine my definition of love on every level. It is more than an easy joy ride of a read with interesting illustrations. Although it is that, it is also like visiting a work of art that allows you to be swallowed up whole and participate in its essence. And what a trip it is. Definitely not Kansas. Not unless you consider that the wicked witch of the west is within each of us to some degree. And perhaps she is. And perhaps our perception of love and hate, hope and despair, are never further apart than our minds perception of what power these emotions hold over us. Each story and work of art suggests exactly that. I have added depth to my reality of what love is - might be - can do - and all because of these two artists who weave their tales much like a spider spins its web. These stories and works of art are interesting, intricate in design, and sometimes even deadly. In several of them I am left feeling like the fly who is caught, sucked in, left stunned. I like that feeling. It isn't one you are likely to forget. "The Alchemy of Love" isn't a book you are likely to forget either. It will change and transform you as only truly great artistry can.

Combining his distinctively gruff voice and guy-next-door personality, Alden Aaroe owned the airwaves for virtually all his morning program's 37 years on WRVA-AM in Richmond, Va. Alden was the man with whom everyone in town shared breakfast or a ride to work. He might talk to them about a lost dog or when it was time to plant the tomatoes or whether the morning snow had closed their schools.
"Alden Aaroe: Voice of the Morning," written by Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Steve Clark in 1994, draws together stories and anecdotes of this local legend from colleagues, friends, family and listeners. The book was re-released in 2001.
Hired as an announcer in 1946, Aaroe was given WRVA's morning show 10 years later and kept it nearly up until his death from cancer in 1993, at age 75. Aaroe's program made him one of the most popular radio men in the country. But he was much more. As Aaroe's daughter, Anna Lou, says in the book: "Growing up, I was totally fascinated by this man who could speak French, quote poetry, play the piano and the ukelele, who was knowledgeable on a variety of subjects, and who also built a house, cut wood and fixed just about anything that needed fixing around the house."
"Voice of the Morning" is a story of a man who once was listed No. 1 in the Richmond area telephone book. He eventually lost that distinction, but Aaroe remained No. 1 in all other respects. This book is an enjoyable read about a man and his community -- and a time that probably is no more.

ALDOUS HUXLEY AND FILM presents the first in-depth study of the career of Aldous Huxley in Los Angeles, where he lived from 1938 until his death in 1963. On that day, November 22, as he lay dying, unaware of President Kennedy's assassination, Huxley asked for an injection of LSD, and he slipped away tripping peacefully. His life in Los Angeles had been no less dramatic. There, he was part of a lively circle of friends, such as Greta Garbo, Christopher Isherwood, Anita Loos, Charlie Chaplin, Krishnamurti, and Igor Stravinsky. Besides producing a number of important books, he wrote for films, including screenplays for four major features: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (1939), MADAME CURIE (1943), JANE EYRE (1944), and A WOMAN'S VENGEANCE (1947).

Set in a biographical/cultural context, ALDOUS HUXLEY AND FILM explores the symbiotic relationship between film and literature in Huxley's career. In addition to examining Huxley's four major screenplays in depth, the book investigates Huxley's attitudes and experiences regarding film throughout his entire working life. It also probes the influence of his involvement with the movies--along with his confrontation with the unique culture of California--on his other writings. Among those works, Huxley's "Hollywood novel," AFTER MANY A SUMMER DIES THE SWAN (1939; inspired by William Randolph Hearst and San Simeon) and his "lost screenplay," APE AND ESSENCE (1948; a kind of sequel to BRAVE NEW WORLD, set in the ruins of Los Angeles in the year 2108), are analyzed in detail.

ALDOUS HUXLEY AND FILM (Number 16 in the Scarecrow Filmmakers Series) presents new and important areas of study for both film scholars and literary critics. The book is well illustrated with photographs of Huxley and his associates, and with stills from his four major films.

The author, Virginia M. Clark (Ph.D., University of Maryland), has taught English and film at the University of Maryland and at Frostburg State University, and has been on the staff of the Library of Congress, and of the American Film Institute in her native Los Angeles. She has edited several AFI FACTFILES and contributed to the AFI CATALOG OF FEATURE FILMS, 1911-1920 and 1931-1940. Among her publications are articles appearing in FILMS AND FILMMAKERS, MAGILL'S SURVEY OF CINEMA, THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PERFORMING ARTS ANNUAL, INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY OF FILMS AND FILMMAKERS, and THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM. She co-edited with Ann Martin WHAT WOMEN WROTE: SCENARIOS, 1912-1929. She also writes screenplays.

[This review was written by the author, so you would know what the book is about, and who the author is. Thank you for reading it.]

Written by historian Lawrence M. Woods, Alex Swan and the Swan Companies is a fascinating, in-depth biography of 1800's corporate tycoon Alex Swan, and the robust enterprises he founded, particularly the Swan Land and Cattle Company, one of the larger livestock companies to operate in the American West. Chapters don't just detail Swan's life; over half of Alex Swan and the Swan Companies is devoted to the stories of his former businesses long after he was no longer running them. Appendices of financial information, a bibliography, and an index round out this thoughtful, involving portrait of a self-made man's legacy.

I picked up this book and cannot put it down. What a great text! The reader will have to know their (High School) Algebra and Geometry. Have a Reference available if you have been away for some time.

After this book, you may be ready for Geometry of Curves (Chapman Hall/Crc Mathematics Series), followed by Plane Algebraic Curves (Student Mathematical Library, V. 15) and/or Introduction to Plane Algebraic Curves.

The former is more Analysis/Topology based and the latter Algebra. They are German texts, you will certainly need a strong foundation in Analysis and Abstract Algebra. Prepare well!

There are a host of books on AG - Those above are inexpensive, except Geometry of Curves (Chapman Hall/Crc Mathematics Series), light and quite prepratory for advanced study.

PJO

its a collectors book with really good Judo moves in it. and if you send the book to me I will sign it.
buddy clark

Clarkson's off-beat, charming life lessons, from a to z are accompanied by Vehslage's loving, humorous and tender drawings. Her signature big noses are there and so is sense of the endearing inner life of children.

We live in a post-enlightenment age where man seeks through medicine, technology, politics, economics, psychology and sociology to better our world by attempting to eliminate pain and suffering on an individual and societal level. Given the sufficient resources, cooperation and knowledge modern man believes that all such human predicaments can be solved. In advanced industrialized nations such as the United States, suffering and pain have in some sense ceased to be conceived as part of the human condition and represent human failure at various levels. In short, the current secular world view is that we should not suffer or experience pain. Rather than viewed as a natural consequence the effacement of the imago dei as a consequence of man's sin, pain and suffering have their root in nature and can be conquered by man's own efforts.

Despite our vast technical advances and improvements in the health, economic and social well being of the industrialized west, corporate and individual pain continue to exist especially in less developed nations but is also hidden in the fabric of our society. The result has been a real palpable physical change in man's health and socio-economic security but at the expense of the repression from the consciousness of the pain and suffering is effused in the foundations of our world welling up on a daily basis for those with eyes to see. In short, pain and suffering have become alienated and disjointed from the modern paradigm of life not by any real change in the corrupt, fallen nature of man and creation but through mass denial and false expectations promulgated by modernity.

It is indeed tragic that the church, in many cases, has also been in denial of human individual and corporate suffering despite its intimate interaction with our failures and short comings that result in disease, death, victimization and poverty. Rather than embracing the scriptural view of pain and suffering as "creation groaning under the weight of sin," many pulpits avoid texts that deal with the extreme pain and suffering brutally and honestly laid out in scripture. The result is often a "health and wealth" gospel that conveniently ignores the difficult and ugly portions of scripture and offers no real recognition, acknowledgement and legitimization of the terrible state of humanity alienated from God and worse, blinds the hearer from understanding that the Son of Man came to save sinners, heal the sick and redeem all of creation. Congregations seek a happy message and get a false gospel or, really, no gospel at all.

In this current crisis that studies such as Mary E. Mills' "Alterity, Pain and Suffering in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel" is both timely and necessary. There is a desperate need for us to re-examine and come to understand as a believing community professing faith to a non-believing world the true nature of individual and corporate pain. This is not only necessary to understand such tragedies as the Shoah and in more recent times Somalia, but it is necessary so that individual and corporate man returns to that scriptural understanding in order to seek the true remedy of the human condition: our Lord and Savior Christ, Jesus.

Dr. Mills study is academic and not pastoral. She divides the scriptural concept of pain into three basic illustrations. The first is the pain of the Holy Land in its devastation by natural disaster and war as a result of Israel's apostasy expressed in Isaiah's prophecies and descriptions of the land's devastation. The second is the experience of bodily pain, distortion and dehumanization in the personal behavior of Ezekiel as he became a living sign to the people in exile. The third is the psychiatric pain and alienation of Jeremiah as God's spokesman cursing and predicting doom and witnessing the coming destruction of the people and land he loves. Space does not permit elaboration of these illustrations but I do have a few points and critiques. She is careful to interpret pain both individually and corporately in scripture and explain how they are depicted by the prophets.

The author provides us with a concise outline of her theories and defends them well. By and large the book is readable and has copious notes that are genuine supplements to the main text and provide valuable information without interrupting the flow of ideas. Her introduction was a bit technical and does not read as smoothly as it should. She appears to be writing for experts in the field and is very technical and this may create a barrier to a wider readership. However, the subsequent chapters are very well written, develop ideas logically and coherently. The tone remains academic and emotionally detached (which seems odd considering the title) but familiarity with the three prophetic books under study allows one to take Dr. Mills' analysis and reflect upon the text and experience in a real and individual way what she describes from a technical perspective. In short, one must read the prophetic books with these ideas in mind. It is left for the expositor, exegete, pastor and counselor to transform Dr. Mills's ideas into speech the Church can use to spread the gospel and minister to people.

While her analysis of Jeremiah and Ezekiel are brilliant, thought provoking and sound, I have issue with her presentation of the devastation of the Land in Isaiah. Dr. Mills attempts to create a view of the devastation of the land that is removed from all temporal considerations and takes place in space only. She asks us to view the land as corporate Israel (which I believe is a good and fair interpretation) but rather than visualize the destruction of the land as something that happened over time and in phases with periods of reprieve, Dr. Mills' (If I am reading her correctly) asks us to take the destruction in its entirety and experience it as one vast horror image as if a timeless picture of total devastation. This is not the natural reading of Isaiah and certainly not the true historical experience. However, after 586, the Land was depicted as totally devastated and abandoned by God, its people existing and alienated within a total destruction and collapse that was the culmination of historical events. Additionally, supporting her view is that for us today we have scripture present before us all at one time for our reading and consideration. Thus we experience Isaiah not over decades in historical time but in our interaction of reading scripture. We experience it as a both what happened and was prophesied and as a timeless message for all generations.

I am not sure that pain and suffering can be conceptualized or experienced strictly void of temporal considerations. Indeed, the author does mention that suffering, the experience of pain in its entirety (physical, social, economic, spiritual, psychological) entails alienation, disorientation, and depersonalization such that the suffering and pain become a form of "otherness" with which the sufferer must exist. Loss of hope is a major component as well. It is here where I believe the author fails to fully distinguish between pain and suffering. Suffering must have a temporal component. Indeed, in my field of medicine, we have learned to understand, evaluate and treat pain and suffering as two distinct but interrelated conditions. The former can be present in patients with or without the latter. It is the suffering component that defines "illness" rather than "disease" and indeed, it has been my experience that illness in its form of suffering is what is described by Dr. Mills in her thesis. Suffering patients are alienated by society and ironically by the health care system that purports to treat them. Their disease is recognized but suffering unaddressed. Their disease and suffering becomes the "otherness" of their existence that they must coexist with. Their bodies become the devastated landscape depicted in Isaiah. It is common experience that suffering and pain occur in and over time and the suffering of helplessness, hopelessness and depersonalization arises from the duration of suffering past with little hope for relief in the future. Short term pain/illness is not the same as chronic pain/illness of any stamp. The same can be said of societies wherein the whole populace suffers with little hope.

Regardless of these objections, I find Ms. Mills concept of spatial rather than temporal pain to be a useful, theoretical construct for understanding the texts and appreciating the depth of the depiction of pain. However, rather than completely eliminate time considerations; perhaps it would be useful to view the historical period over which this pain was realized as "telescoped" by the remoteness from the actual events. It therefore becomes the interpreter's job to "untelescope" or expand these events to help create for the hearer the true experience recorded in scripture and not some outdated ancient recording of events from a time before our "enlightenment."

In summary, this is an important study that has much to commend it to a wider audience than perhaps intended. It is my hope that the Church will once again embrace the "difficult" texts of suffering and help through its witness to validate man's current experience of suffering and pain as the same today as it was in biblical times. The witness to this revelation must at all time point to Christ as our Hope and Peace and thus become once again a significant part of our evangelical message. Dr. Mills' ideas should be read with seriousness and urgency, given deep reflection and become part of the Church's understanding of its witness and the revelation entrusted to it.

Dr. Mills' gives us much to think about.